Dr. Paul Evangelista is a research ecologist at the Natural Resource Ecology Laboratory (NREL). His research has extended across a broad array of interests including invasive species, forestry, rare and endangered wildlife, ethnobotany, ecosystem services, biological soils, post-fire succession, and climate change. His interests are frequently examined in the context of space and time through a suite of integrative spatial modeling techniques that combine field data, geographic information systems (GIS) and remote sensing. Such analytical approaches have been used for early detection of invasive species, discovery of new wildlife populations, mapping forests and landcover, and predicting species’ distribution in response to changing climates.

In 1999, Paul traveled with to the Omo Valley in Southern Ethiopia; a trip that would dramatically influence his life’s path. In 2000, he co-founded a non-profit organization called The Murulle Foundation, with the mission to “maintain the balance between cultural and natural resources in sub-Saharan Africa”. Through the foundation, he has helped facilitate reforestation programs, technical training for natural resource managers, the discovery of new wildlife populations, construction of water-supply system, education in primary schools in rural communities, and many other grass-root initiatives. Paul later went on to pursue a Ph.D. and began shifting his Ethiopian efforts toward research and higher education through the NREL and Warner College of Natural Resources. His research has focused on a number of wildlife species including the mountain nyala and Grevy’s zebra; mapping biodiversity and ecosystem services in the Bale Mountains; and the impacts of climate change on Ethiopia’s food security. He has also facilitated a number of university partnerships, including Mekelle University, Hawassa University and Addis Ababa University.